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Targeted by an investigation for alleged corruption in the Air Guinea affair, Cellou Dalein Diallo, the leader of the UFDG, the country’s main party, made a point of explaining himself during a press conference on Thursday February 17. He has tried to defend himself once morest those who he says want to attack his ” reputation and honor “. He also returned to the property he occupies in Conakry and for which the State is now demanding restitution.
With our correspondent in Conakry, Matthias Raynal
Welcomed by the applause of a handful of activists, under the hangar of the UFDG headquarters, it was to the journalists that Cellou Dalein Diallo came to speak. Long. For almost an hour. On the sale of Air Guinea, he believes that he is not the main responsible. He was Minister of Transport at the time.
« I signed of course but checked that the prices were good for Guinea. But the Air Guinea liquidation operation took place at the Ministry of Finance and it was he who set the prices. »
“Why this judicial harassment of a political leader? »
For his property in Conakry, acquired under former President Lansana Conté, he specifies: “ I did not seize a public domain of the State. It was a private domain of the State – it is important to make the difference – which was given to me in accordance with the rule and the procedures. »
There was a transfer of ownership, he says, and he even shows a copy of his land title. He denounces today a relentlessness. “ This judicial harassment of a political leader, we must ask ourselves: why is there this harassment? »
The leader of the UFDG was to meet his lawyers on Thursday evening to prepare his response.
